He nodded. She saw the twinkle in his eye and responded to it. "Let us sit down. I don't care to dance any more. Who are you?"
He compelled her to continue dancing the length of the room, and then led her off the floor to the entrance doors, and through them into the first antechamber.
"My name is Charles Audley; my army rank Lieutenant-colonel; my regimental rank, major. What else shall I tell you?"
She interrupted him. "Audley… Oh, I have it! You are Worth's brother. Why did the Prince present you to me?"
"Because I asked him to. That was my only strategy."She sat down upon a couch against the wall, and with a movement of her hand invited him to take his place beside her. He did so, and after a moment she said with her odd, boyish curtness: "I think I never saw you before tonight, did I?"
"Never. I have been employed in the Peninsula, and later in Paris and Vienna. But I have a little the advantage of you. You, I daresay, had never heard of me before, but I had heard of you."
"That's horrid!" she said quickly.
"Why?"
"Oh! People never say nice things about me. What have you been told?"
"That you were beautiful."